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Fonseca - F Cristovão de Lisboa Missionary and Natural Historian of Brazil
Fonseca - F Cristovão de Lisboa Missionary and Natural Historian of Brazil
Fonseca - F Cristovão de Lisboa Missionary and Natural Historian of Brazil
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FREI CRISTOVAO DE LISBOA, O.F.M., MISSIONARY AND
NATURAL HISTORIAN OF BRAZIL
T HE BRAVERY AND
in the history DARING
of the of the
discovery, Portuguese
exploration is evident
and colonization
of Brazil. Many of them sold everything they possessed and
then set off across the ocean with their "household and family,"
facing storms and the assaults of pirates, and were often shipwrecked
or eaten by the cannibalistic Indians on the shores where they ex-
pected to be safe.
A vigorous character was necessary to penetrate the forests, to
fight with warlike Indians and to weather the change of climate.
Only adventurers or those who felt impelled by a higher mission
would undertake the risk of facing such dangers. It was only human
that the former would seek reward by exploiting the riches of the
country. Hence it hardly seems unreasonable that, when the Fran-
ciscan Fathers recommended for the civil government of the Indians
"a disinterested official who rules without ambition, without hatred
and without particular affection," the Procurator of the Crown
replied: "I consider it impossible to find a man of such qualities
willing to go to Maranhao for so much work and so little profit."
Settlers, artis4ns of various trades, masons, gunsmiths were sent to
Maranhio under the correct assumption that settlement was the first
step toward future development. The Governor, Alexandre de Moura,
asked for coopers, carpenters, calkers and weavers to be sent there.
He recommended that these be well paid in order that others might
also be induced to go.x As far as the defense of the country was
concerned, Alexandre de Moura further pointed out that the best one
consisted in the vast extent of the great forests, and he also stressed
the necessity of remaining on good terms with the natives. Manoel
de Sousa d'Ega expressed a similar opinion in his request: ". . . the
conservation and the increase of the said conquista [Pari] consists in
keeping peace with the natives." The same official, in another docu-
ment, asked for religious who would teach the Catholic faith to
the Indians to stop the false doctrine which was being taught to
them by foreigners; he stated that the best qualified for this task
289
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290 FREI CRISTOVi'O DE LISBOA, O.F.M.
would be the Jesuits and the members of the "Order of St. Anthony,"
as the Franciscans of the Portuguese Province of San Ant6nio were
commonly called.2
Tolerance and peace with the aborigines were the basic principles
of Portuguese colonization. Yet greedy adventurers, anxious to be-
come wealthy, oftentimes provoked grave conflicts. It is likewise
true that not all the Indians were willing to live peacefully with the
Portuguese invaders of their country, nor were all as meek as those
described by Pero Vaiz de Caminha. Captain Manoel Soares de
Almeida relates that thirty white soldiers were killed by the Indians
in revenge for the "corruption and covetousness" of Matias de Albu-
querque. Francisco Caldeira Castelo Branco gave rise to a terrible
revolt by maltreating the Indians.3 When he died, his wife and his
daughter requested a confirmation of his land grants, and through an
investigation of the judge, Francisco Leitio, the great extent of his
wealth was verified: in the city of Belem in Grio Parai he owned the
best houses, surrounded with trees, a brick factory and a chapel, a
great number of slaves, plantations of manioc and sugar cane "the
canes of which were the first ones to be obtained at the beginning
of that conquista"; furthermore he possessed an important ranch of
livestock in Sergipe and palatial mansions in Santar6m.4 A compro-
mising wealth indeed! How often the principles of charity and
justice must have been set aside in order to obtain it!
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LUIZA DA FONSECA 291
The Indian who is my vassal and does not fulfill the obligations
connected therewith, may be justly and duly punished as deserved
according to the nature of his fault; he may not be enslaved since
this punishment cannot be inflicted upon a vassal; the Indian who is
not a vassal shall first be granted pardon, and, if he does not accept
it, nor the baptismal water, then war shall be made against him and
he shall be made captive.7
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292 FREI CRIST6VXO DE LISBOA, O.F.M.
I cannot agree with the opinion of the Council, nor with the opinion
of the Governor, because to bring in these Indians now by means of
troops is nothing else than to command fraud, prison and destruction
of men who are free by the disposition of God and the laws of
nature. May it please Your Highness to resolve the problem of all
the Indians of Maranhao, and according to the resolution of Your
Highness the answer can be given to Jorge Gomes. However, to
permit the convocation [i. e., enslavement] of the Indians now is
only to provide an occasion for disorders very harmful to the service
of God and of Your Highness.'3
For these and other reasons, the frequently quoted Olmeiro well
13 AHC, Maranhio, October 17, 1673.
14 AHC, Pernambuco, Parecer in the letter of Governor Marques de Montebelo,
Olinda, July 20, 1690.
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LUIZA DA FONSECA 293
The Custos and the other religious sent out by Your Majesty for
the conversion of the Indians of Maranhao and Parai declare that
several Portuguese, Your Majesty not being well informed, obtained
from Your Majesty the capitanias [direction] of the Indian villages
of those regions. This results in great harm to the service of God and
of Your Majesty, because the aforesaid captains, as experience has
shown both on the whole Brazilian coast as well as in the Castilian
Indies, having their eyes cast exclusively upon the temporal profit,
on account of which they apply for said capitanias without any
remuneration, maltreat the Indians in various manners: they hire them
and overburden them with work, withholding the just wage for their
labor; they even dare to take away from them their wives and daugh-
ters. They treat all Indians with asperity and immoderate rigor,
neglecting to help them and to relieve their necessities. On the con-
trary they do not even give them enough time to care for their own
fields from which these people maintain themselves and also the
Portuguese. Being interested only in having them working, they do
not provide an opportunity for teaching them Christian doctrine,
even though instruction in the faith is the major reason why Your
Majesty, with such great expenses of your treasury, commands the
settlement and conquest of those regions. Since, as regards the
aforesaid capitanias, the Indians need to be guided with meekness,
they are scandalized to the point that they, as one solid group, flee
into the forests, taking with them such news of the Portuguese to
the others, who then consider and treat us as mortal enemies. In
consequence the country becomes desolate without anyone to culti-
vate it and therefore there is so great a lack of food and venison and
fish, which they used to provide, that it is impossible to settle it and
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294 FREI CRIST6VWXO DE LISBOA, O.F.M.
to have anyone to perform the services. Moreover, the conversion
of those people and the propagation of the Catholic faith is entirely
impeded and prevented, since those that accepted it have abandoned
it by fleeing into the forests, and the others who avoid contact with
the Portuguese, cannot receive knowledge of it. Furthermore, the
subjugated country is exposed to the risk of being scarcely defensible,
since we do not have any friendly Indians with whose aid we could
defend ourselves from those who are not, and without their help we
can hardly manage it on account of the country being covered with
dense vegetation, where only the Indians, natives and experts of the
country, know how to fight, being habituated to combat in such
places with the same weapons, bows and arrows, which we do not
use, ours being of little effect in such places. Hence one cannot help
but conclude that Brazil and the Castilian Indies have been con-
quered with the aid of the very same Indians, our allies, whom our
captains obtained as friends, understanding that without them they
could not attack the others nor defend themselves. The undersigned
ask that Your Majesty be pleased to command that the grant of
aforesaid captaincies be without effect, since, at any rate, they are a
detriment to the service of God and Your Majesty.
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LUIZA DA FONSECA 295
for the Indians, who, as pointed out in the petition, are civilized by
the Fathers and make progress in Catholic doctrine, for the service
of Your Majesty and the welfare of the people.-6
I have seen the petition of the Custos and the Religious of St.
Francis, who are going to Maranhao, which you sent to me, and
which deals with the direction and the liberty of the Indians of those
regions; and I have seen the opinion of Gaspar de Sousa, who con-
siders everything in this dispatch, and I am pleased to decree that
everything shall be done according to the suggestion of Gaspar de
Sousa, for which purpose you are to issue the required enactment.17
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296 FREI CRISTOVXO DE LISBOA, O.F.M.
sider that any deposit had been made, because the things received
were of no importance. It appeared necessary to him that each of
the priests should be given 20$000 reis since they still had clothes
and books. After the Procurator of the Exchequer also had been
consulted, the Council of the Exchequer favored the opinion that His
Majesty ought to offer an alms of 20$000 reis to the Custos and
his nine religious companions, in order to enable them to provide
themselves with all things necessary, and the King agreed with that
opinion.
20oBiblioteca Nacional (Lisbon, Portugal), Fundo Geral, Ms. no. 7643. Hereafter
referred to as BNL.
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LUIZA DA FONSECA 297
So far it has been impossible to find much data that would permit us
to follow the later life of the illustrious Franciscan. His nephew,
Manoel de Faria Severim, informs us in his diary:24 "Then, from
the monastery of Sacavem (on January 19, 1637) we, my brother and
myself, accompanied my mother to Subserra where we arrived at
night; thence we sent notice to Father Frei Crist6vio de Lisboa,
my uncle, who then happened to be in the little monastery of
Sobral. .. ." The same nephew, a year afterwards, on January 24,
1638, was received into the Franciscan Order and at the ceremony
23 He may be referring to such serious and painful troubles as he had with Fr.
Luis Figueira, S.J.
24BNL, Fundo Geral, Ms. no. 7643.
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298 FREI CRISTOVrO DE LISBOA, O.F.M.
Again Frei Crist6vao de Lisboa was the one to preach the sermon
published with the title Third Sunday in Advent in the Misericdrdia
of Lisbon, when King D. Joa-o IV took the oath as King of this Realm.2
The Arquivo Hist6rico Colonial also has a very interesting docu-
ment,27 perhaps of 1642, with the title "Papel do Principal do Grio
Pari," which is a testimony against bad Portuguese who destroyed the
Indians and in which the missionary is called forth as a witness:
"... and of all this Father Frei Crist6vao de Lisboa will give true
information as an eyewitness, as well as the other religious of his
order."
25AHC, C6dice 43, fol. 110, Consulta of the Conselho da Fazenda, August 8, 1637.
See also Mathias C. Kiemen, O.F.M., "The Indian Policy of Portugal in America,
with Special Reference to the Old State of Maranhio, 1500-1755," THE AMERICAS, V
(1948), 157.
26 Sermno da tereceira dominga do Advento, quando se jurou El-rei D. Joia IV
por rei (Lisbon, Ant6nio Alvares, 1641).
27 AHC, Maranhio, n. d. [1642? ].
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LUIZA DA FONSECA 299
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300 FREI CRISTI6VXO DE LISBOA, O.F.M.
your book that Manoel de Sousa brought me here by orders of the
Governor; yet it is not so, since he remained there and thence he
went to Bahia, and now he came with the Governor.
I know very well that you are hardly guilty in this, since being a
man of known truth yourself you judge others according to your own
standard; however the pure truth is a thing that is very rarely found
here; I am making this remark because nothing discredits books of
history more than an account which is diametrically opposed to the
truth.... I beg you to trust only the reports I am sending on to
you from here, as I am very zealous of credibility. . ... I sent away
the notebook from those I am writing on the history of these regions
and I have no other original left but the reports written or heard;
you will polish the style there, since I have had no time for that, and
keep it for me. This original is in perfect harmony with the truth.
I am a very busy person and I do not have anybody to transcribe it
for me."1
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LUIZA DA FONSECA 301
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302 FREI CRISTOVAO DE LISBOA, O.F.M.
unfinished, with other sketches superimposed; the animal is shown in
various positions, demonstrating the endeavor of the author to render
a perfect work; this aim is likewise confirmed by occasional marginal
remarks such as: "the points less protruding." On fol. 66, not satisfied
with the drawing of the "Savoya, rabbit with features of a rat," he
cut off part of the muzzle which was substituted by another piece of
paper glued over it, beneath which one still may see the whiskers and
the tip of the nose of the original figure.
On each page there are two or three drawings. Some of the pages
are of exquisite beauty, for instance, the one with the group of deer
or the one with the lizards, pictured in a position wherein they lean
so as to form a frame. All animals are in elegant and natural positions.
The great care of the author in picturing the animals is still out-
done by the care given to the representation of the plants; each one
of them fills an entire page with a graceful abundance of leaves, flowers
and fruits, leaving the impression that the page does not have room
enough for the image collected by the artistic vision of the author.
The first plant is the manioc. On fol. 117, beneath the figure of the
comanda [feijo, bean], there is the following legend: "This tree up
to now does not have any other name but that of coral on account
of the flower which appears to be of coral. Only the very famous and
learned Carlo Clusio mentions it, without flower or fruit, and he states
that he received it from Sevilla with the name of arvore de coral.
Thus the tree may be called in Latin: Arbor siliquifera, trifolia, Ameri-
cana et Brasiliana, where it grows in the fields. It is called Arvore
Espinho [thorn tree] because it has some thorns close around the
branches. Ita Gulielmus insignis Herbarius." This note appears to be
in the hand of the author, in very good handwriting; it is the only
erudite note of the manuscript.
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LUIZA DA FONSECA 303
The text which follows at the end of the book is of very simple
composition, very bad orthography and worse handwriting; only in
some parts the writing and the style are slightly better. Could it be
that it was dictated by the author while he was drawing, to a com-
panion of little education? There are some words which contain
corrections made by the author. The study of the handwriting of
this precious manuscript is a work that requires great attention and
comparison with all known handwritings of the author, and the
present writer hopes to do it someday.
LUIZA DA FONSECA
Arquivo Histo'rico Colonial,
Lisbon, Portugal.
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